"In the flood of literature on terrorism, this essay stands out as
unusual,
and unusually enlightening and provocative. It guides the reader,
lucidly
and forcefully, from basic ideas about a good and decent life to
contemplation of concrete and immediate issues that are or should be at
the
center of attention. It is a compelling and impressive
contribution to
thinking about problems that are complex, painful, and urgent." Prof. Noam Chomsky endorsement

"Honderich is a symptom of a poisonous, unapologetic hatred of Israel
that is now part of maintstream campus culture. ... William F. Buckley
once said that he'd be better off living in a country governed by the
first 100 names in the Boston phone book than by tenured members of the
Harvard faculty. He's still right. A five-year-old child has the sense
to know that slaugtering innocent civilians is wrong. To convince
yourself otherwise, you have to spend years hanging around a
university." Jonathan Kay, National Post

"Everyone who was appalled by the events of September llth 2001 must
read
this book. You are stopped despite yourself, and held until the tale is
finished. You are addressed personally, in urgent, passionate talk. Not
everyone will like his conclusions, yet even those who are prepared to
take no responsibility for the Terror are bound to reflect...
...brisk moral and original philosophy"Baroness Mary Warnock endorsement

"unusual and unusually enlightening and provocative"ABC Network
News

"It is unusual to find philosophers getting into the debate on current
events; most of them are safely ensconced in their ivory towers
pondering questions of higher importance. It is therefore
gratifying to find some philosophers in the trenches tackling questions
pertinent to all of us -- trying to understand current events and to
untangle the meaning of propaganda-frayed language."Jeffrey St. Clair, CounterPunch

"There are many kinds of books about September 11 ....To get to the
heart of the questions, you could do worse than read the philosopher
Ted Honderich's essay ... Honderich doesn't lecture, he
enquires." Erica Wagner, The Times

"It is a relief to turn from the highly wrought aphorisms of
Baudrillard, even if there are insights here and there, to Honderich,
whose strength is a careful, dogged probing of injustice, inequality
and moral responsibility. No reflections on the precognitive aspects of
Hollywood disaster movies or on the nature of images for Honderich.
...he makes it new and he makes the reader see it anew by the way he
keeps his inquiry open, not letting himself or the reader leap ahead,
by his concentration on the moral issue, and by his sharp eye for the
constant inclination of the privileged to prefer those theories which
let them off the hook."Martin Woolacott, The Guardian

"Honderich's brilliant After the
Terror attempts to provide the
conceptual and moral tools for self-perception and resolution to
change, to make moral contemplation a matter of the living present and
future. His provocative conclusions are likely to raise much more than
a few eyebrows, especially in western societies, which he describes
bluntly as 'ignorant, stupid, selfish, managed and deceived for gain,
self-deceived, and deadly'." Tanweer Akram, Bangkok Post

"Few academic philosophers have the guts or the sensitivity of Ted
Honderich. ... No publication I know captures the background sense of
moral reasoning shared by today's international progressive movement
better than this one. Nor are the subtle but deadly shades of
culpability among dominant western societies more searchingly
revealed." Douglas Doepke, Amazon Reviews

"In his provocative and chatty After
the Terror, Honderich...aims to
defend a moral framework grounded in what he calls the Principle of
Humanity. ... This is both a challenging and rewarding book, to be read
by anyone who wants to think more intelligently about morality in
general and about the morality of September 11 and its aftermath."Prof. Anthony Skelton, Literary
Review of Canada

"September 11 woke up certain elements in the West from their dogmatic
presuppositions about the West and the 'others'. But this awakening
only provoked the bombing of Afghanistant and Iraq and an increase in
the number of bad lives, as a kind of negative consequentialist
morality. Honderich's After the Terror, on the contrary, is an
insightful and alternative analysis and set of prescriptions about how
to proceed." Lansana Keita, Quest, An African
Journal of Philosophy

"This is an unpalatable but rigorously argued view. Even its detractors
will readily take it on after reading such an erudite, urgently written
volume." Noah Richler, National Post

"Honderich said he was surprised to arrive in Canada and read Prime
Minister Jean Chretien's controvesial comments that Western nations are
looked upon as 'arrogrant, self-satisfied, greedy, and with no limits'
-- a view he shares. The Prime Minister's observations were a response
to the 'terrible moral alarm clock of Sept 11', he said."Leslie Scrivener, Toronto Star

"In these bad times, when many intellectuals have become the
spear-carriers of the new order, reading the words of Ted Honderich is
a rare delight. This uncompromising and courageous philosopher
continues the dissenting tradition of Bertrand Russell and Jean-Paul
Sartre, more needed now than ever before."Tariq Ali endorsement

"The book is bound to offend those who find repulsive the notion that
there is any moral equivalence in the motives of the terrorists and and
the extent to which the West (and particularly the United States) might
have been responsible for the circumstances that motivated them." Geoff Kitney, Sydney Morning Herald

"If you like leftish moral philosophy and can put up with intellectual
sleight of hand, you can turn to Ted Honderich, whose After the Terror
claims that your knowledge of and refusal to do much about the
abbreviated, debilitated, fearful 'bad lives' of the poor south makes
us morally responsible for the terror they throw up." Dominick Donald, The Guardian

"... the anti-war cant that abounds, especially on the academic left.
An example of the latter is After
The Terror, by Ted Honderich...a
fossil of the European armchair gauche, who holds a distinguished chair
in philosophy at London University..." Tunku Varadarajan, Wall Street
Journal

"Professor Honderich has tried to stick closer to the really big
issues. Instead of anecdotes and vox pops, his book is filled with
abstract argumentation about moral philosophy, the nature of democracy,
the definition of political violence, and so on. As result, this book
is able to be bad in a much more serious way. Indeed, I think it is one
of the worst books I have ever read. ... By this point, readers may be
wondering whether Professor Honderich believes that Osama bin Laden, in
attacking the World Trade Center, was trying to persuade the West to
feed Africans. The answer seems to be 'yes'. But he cannot quite bring
himself to say this.... It is just bewildering, and deeply depressing,
to think that an emient professor of philosophy can produce this sort
of stuff. Not spending £15.99 on this book is one act of omission
we should all feel impelled to commit." Noel Malcolm, All Souls College
Oxford, The
Sunday Telegraph

"... a sledgehammer to some of the assumptions presented in public
debate ... Honderich's contribution to the debate surrounding the
events of 11 September 2001 and its aftermath is therefore welcome and
vital. ... profound ...." Michael Rowson, Medicine, Conflict
and Survival

"On p. 151 Honderich writes: 'Palestinians have exercised a moral right
in their terrorism against the Israelis'. Even if he is correct in this
assessment (and I am by no means convinced that he is -- or that he
isn't) he devoted only half a page to explaining a judgement that has
provoked volumes from others. If anything in this book can be said to
be provocative verging on the irresponsible, I think it is this
judgement. (I say this without intending any support for the decision
of Honderich's German publisher to refuse to print further copies of
the book. so much of the book is persuasive and compelling... ...not
many Americans will find Honderich's analysis -- or at least that part
which consists of his criticism of our 'democratic' politics and our
capitalistic economy -- much to their taste. ... a significant
contribution ... written in an engaging, informal style a sort of
ongoing debate between two voices ... few books on such weighty topics
have been written with comparable style and ease. Whatever its
limitations, it is a fine example of applied philosophy from which even
his critics will learn much."Prof. Hugo Adam Bedau, Philosophy
and Phenomenological Review

"We could sense the forces mobilizing against civilization. Not just
those outswide of it -- murderous and grubbing in the sand -- but those
within in. Apart from crazies like Noam Chomsky and Susan Sontag,
people were choosing their sides. Ted Honderich an old
socialist professor of mine who directed my MA thesis in London, ended
up writing one of the seminal works on terrorist apologetics afer
9/11." Max Borders, TCS Daily

"I hope this university is as ashamed of itself as I am for having paid
good money to bring this speaker to campus. Honderich claimed that the
Palestinian suicide bombngs in Israel cn bemorally rationalized in prt
because 'Palestinians have bad lives. Such illogic is despictable. Raffi Bilek, Brown Daily Herald

"The attack on the twin towers was wrong, according to Honderich,
because there was no reasonable expectation that it would do any good,
only a certainty that it would desrtroy lives. Is that all? ... Other
parts of this book are simply splendid: the chapter on the limitations
of liberal democracy, and the section demolishing the claims of
capitalism in a matter of ten pages, devastatingly put paid to any idea
tht we can justify the war on terrorism as a defence of our superior
'way of life'. And the whole book is a marvellous example of what good
philosophy can do to puncture the compacency of received moral and
political ideas." Prof. Richard Norman, New Humanist

"Honderich's starting point is an uncontroversial specification of what
goods make for a good life and a description of the millions who lead
bad lives in lacking them, including the Palestinians. ... Honderich's
is a passionate, protracted and closely reasoned argument, whose
uncomfortable conclusions can only be resisted, it seems to me, if his
plausible ethical premises can be.... Michael Ignatieff's book [The
Lesser Evil: Political Ethics
in an Age of Terror] is very different.
Honderich's exasperation issues in ethical entreaty; Ignatieff's alarm,
in political admonitiions. And Ignatieff exhibits all the conventional
responses that Honderich despises."Prof. Paul Gilbert, Philosophical
Books

"Here, in brief, are some of the best among the dozens of books on
Sept. 11 ... Ted Honderich...situates 9/11 in a general moral inquiry
about the nature of terrorism...."Globe and
Mail

"Was Oxfam right to turn down Honderich's donation? No. ...I suspect
Oxfam has reacted to a vocal pro-Israel minority and concerns about
potential damage to its future fund-raising. All NGO's working in
Palestine are well aware of this lobby, which complains on a daily
basis about any support given to the opposition."Rob Cartridge, War on Want, Third
Sector

"Now I happen to take issue with some of Professor Honderich's
conclusions ... But what in God's name is Oxfam doing refusing
Professor Honderich's money for its humanitarian work? Who was behind
this?" Robert Fisk, The Independent

"It may be for us, the public, robustly to inform charities that if
they cave in to blackmail, the rest of us will turn our backs. Two
years ago was another troubling case: Oxfam's refusal of £5,000
from Professor Ted Honderich.... Professor Honderich believes that it
was scared by a threat from a Canadian newspaper to run a piece
sayingit took money from terrorist sympathisers." Libby Purves, The Times

"A British charity has stepped in to accept a donation that Oxfam
controversially rejected because the money was linked to a book
defending the Palestinians' right to carry out suicide bombings.
Medical Aid for Palestinians has welcomed the £5,000 donation.
... MAP will also get the equivalent of 1% of sales revenue from the
publisher, Edinburgh University Press." Owen Bowcott, The Guardian

"Suhrkamp is now publishing...a political-philosophical tract
propagating anti-semitic anti-Zionism, thereby justifying the murder of
Jewish civilians in Israel and so, according to the strict moral logic
of Honderich, recommending other people to do precisely that
(viz. kill Jews). ... I therefore urge you to take Honderich’s
book off the market immediately." Mischa Brumlik, Frankfurter Rundschau

"I recommended Honderich’s book to Suhrkamp ... my respected English
fellow-philosopher brought quite a different perspective to bear. The
text reveals the passion for justice felt by an old social democrat who
has thought long and hard about the real and actual consequences of a
monstrously uneven distribution of the world’s goods
... Brumlik raises the charge of anti-semitism against Honderich. ... I
can find nothing in the text to justify Brumlik’s charge." Prof. Jurgen Habermas, Frankfurter
Rundschau

"An open letter from Prof. Dr. Ted Honderich to the Johann Wolfgang
Goethe University, Frankfurt/Main, by way of the Frankfurter Rundschau:
Mischa Brumlik, the director a Holocaust institute
and I understand a professor in your university's institute for general
education in science declares me to be an antisemite. This is because
in my book I defend the moral right of the Palestinians to their
resistance to the state of Israel, as the state of Israel defends its
moral right to the killing of Palestinians.
The charge of antisemitism outrages me. I could not
believe my eyes. How did the editors at the presses of the University
of Edinburgh and Columbia University in New York, as well as Suhrkamp
Verlag, fail to see my antisemitism?
No one who has not already joined the New
Zionism can read my book and declare any such thing. No doubt the
charge will now have some psychoanalysis added to it to take into
account the fact that I have had a Jewish wife, refused to lecture in
Germany on account of the Holocaust, etc.
The audacious stupidity of the charge of
antisemitism gives rise to a complacency on my part about every
sentence in Brumlik's letter.
It is despicable, too, to engage in personal slurs
of association having to do with people whose politics I do not share.
It is dishonourable to attempt to bring pressure on a publishing house
of outstanding international repute.
This terrible disservice to truth and decency is not
consistent with academic principle. I therefore ask you to consider the
dismissal immediately of Mischa Brumlik from his post with you.
With respect,
Prof. Dr. Ted Honderich" Frankfurter
Rundschau

"In recent weeks a publishing scandal involving charges of
anti-Semitism has dominated the feuilleton sections of leading German
dailies. ... At the center of the maelstrom in Germany is a slim volume
by the philosopher Ted Honderich....
Was Honderich's endorsement of Palestinian suicide bombing anti-Semitic?
Technically, no."Richard Wolin, Chronicle of Higher
Education

"A leading radical philosopher, who has been compared to Bertrand
Russell and Jean-Paul Sartre, and praised by Noam Chomsky, says
Palestinian 'terrorism' is a moral response to Israel ethnic cleansing.
Ted Honderich...plans to take the same message to the Edinburgh
International Festival on Thursday, where tickets to hear his speech
have already been sold out."Aljazeera

"There is emeritus professor Ted Honderich producing a book about the
new terrain of morality mapped out in the wake of September 11.
...there is a new diversity in British academic philosophy -- it
doesn't just consist of white men puffing pipes and meditating on the
predicate calculus...." Stuart Jeffries, The Guardian